We have found that bundled services work best for us. We still get calls from VM's inquiring about abstracting services, but we make them available only in conjunction with our receipt of the corresponding closings and recordings.

We are all familiar with the usual VM pressure to reduce abstracting fees through requests for discounts. Most abstractors have accomodated this request by seeking volume in return for the discounted price. There are a number of draw backs to the volume discount procedure.

          a)     Many clients will negotiate a volume discount arrangement,
                  provide the required volume for a brief period, and then
                  reduce the volume, but still expect the discounted price of
                  the search.

          b)     Once the abstractor has agreed to the discounted price,
                   it is nearly impossible for him to raise the price subsequently.

          c)      In locations such as Connecticut where there is no county
                   government, travel between a multitude of
                   town halls and the associated travel expenses reduce the
                   abstractors' profit margins. In effect they wind up running
                   themselves ragged doing more work for less money.

In our case, we have found the volume discount method to be counter productive. We no longer make volume discounts available. Instead we offer discounts on abstracting services conditional upon our receipt of the closing and recording also. The VM gets the discount of the abstract, and we make it back on the closing. The fees are higher for closings, and there is more room to negotiate. We wind up doing less abstracting, but making more money.

 

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